Autism Residential Care in NB from 2005-2010: Nothing Has Changed

I have been publicly proud of this beautiful province of New Brunswick when it comes to helping autistic school children and pre-schoolers.  For those age groups I would stack New Brunswick's autism services and real accommodation up against any jurisdiction in North America, even better funded jurisdictions like oil rich Alberta and traditional Canadian economic hub Ontario.  When it comes to taking care of autistic youths living with the challenges of autism and Aspergers though New Brunswick is in very bad shape and has absolutely nothing to brag about.  

In New Brunswick we have an ad hoc system of residential care which has seen New Brunswick adults with autism shipped out of province far from families who love them. We have seen some NB adults with autism living on a hospital ward (information conveyed to me but unconfirmed). We have seen NB autistic youth and adults whose aggressive behaviour even with family members end up in jail facing assault charges.  On some occasions family members are urged by Social Development workers to press charges since the Criminal process will often result in a psychiatric assessment not otherwise available from public funds. The most severely affected by autism reside in a psychiatric hospital in the non central, Northwestern corner city of Campbellton again far from most family members living out their lives. I have visited that hospital and saw caring people in charge but people who have to deal with limited resources.

Things to day are not much different than they were 5 years ago for New Brunswick's autistic adults severely affected by autism who require residential care and treatment. 4 1/2 years ago New Brunswick was infamous for housing an autistic youth charged with no wrongdoing on the grounds of a youth correctional center in Miramichi pending his transfer to the Spurwink facility in the State of Maine.  As the Toronto media headlines faded away, so too did the apparent willingness of government to provide a decent residential care system for New Brunswick adults with autism. I have been part of a contingent of autism representatives that has surveyed the needs of our autistic population and presented our suggestions to government to consider on severeral occasions.  Still no action.  Still nothing to help our autistic  youths and adults in need of decent residential care and treatment.

Following is a Toronto Star article on the incident 5 years ago that saw the autistic youth residing on the grounds of a correctional facility because there was nowhere else for him to go in the Province of New Brunswick.

Autistic boy kept in New Brunswick jail

No other place for him to stay 13-year-old must go to U.S. hospitalNo other place for him to stay
13-year-old must go to U.S. hospital

The Toronto Star, KELLY TOUGHILL, ATLANTIC CANADA
BUREAU, Oct. 19, 2005

HALIFAX—A 13-year-old autistic boy now living in a New Brunswick jail compound will be sent out of Canada because there is no home, hospital or institution that can handle him in his own province Provincial officials confirmed yesterday the boy is living in a visitor's apartment at the Miramichi Youth Centre and will be moved to a treatment centre in Maine by November.

They stressed he is not under lock and key, has no contact with other inmates and is living outside the high wire fence that surrounds the youth detention centre.Nevertheless, the jailhouse placement and the transfer to Maine have outraged mental health advocates and opposition critics.

"They put this boy in a criminal facility because he is autistic," said Harold Doherty, a board member of the Autism Society of New Brunswick"Now we are exporting our children because we can't care for them. This is Canada, not a Third World country.``We are supposed to have a decent standard of care for the sick and the vulnerable, but we don't." 

Liberal MLA John Foran echoed his concern. "This boy has done nothing wrong, is not the subject of any court order, but is in a penal institution." Provincial officials yesterday insisted critics are misrepresenting the nature of the boy's situation and that in fact the province has done everything it can to help him. "This individual is not being held, and is not incarcerated," said Lori-Jean Johnson, spokeswoman for the family and community services department. "He has housekeeping, bath and a separate entrance. We are just utilizing existing resources."

Privacy laws prevent officials from discussing anything that would reveal the boy's identity, including details of his previous living situation and the whereabouts of his parents. This much is known: He suffers from a severe form of autism and is a ward of the state, under the guardianship of the minister of family and community services. He was living in a group home until recently, but became so violent that he was judged a danger to himself and others. At a psychologist's recommendation, he was moved to a three-bedroom apartment on the grounds of the Miramichi Youth Centre, a prison for about 50 young offenders. Two attendants from a private company watch the boy around the clock, at a cost to taxpayers of $700 a day. Johnson said she does not know any details of his care. 

Doherty said the jailhouse placement and move to Maine highlight the desperate need for better services for autistic children in New Brunswick and across Canada. He said staff at most group homes in New Brunswick aren't trained to deal with autism and don't understand the disorder. "If you don't understand autism, things can become very bad very quickly," said Doherty, who has a 9-year-old son with the disorder. "We have been pushing for (better facilities) in New Brunswick for several years. This is not a crisis that has popped up in the last two days. Residential care is a critical element for these people and it is not being provided."

Johnson said the provincial system of group homes and institutions that care for children and adults with psychiatric disorders and mental disabilities works for most people. "We do have existing resources, but once in a while, there will be an exception. Here, we are looking at a very extreme case." The boy will be moved to an Augusta, Me., treatment centre at the end of the month, said Johnson.

The centre, run by a non-profit group called Spurwink, specializes in dealing with autistic adolescents. A Spurwink representative did not return a phone call from the Toronto Star. Provincial officials could not detail the cost to keep the child at Spurwink, nor did they have information about why he's being sent to Maine, rather than a Canadian facility in another province.

The political standings have changed during the past 5 years in New Brunswick.  Mr. John Foran has been part of a Liberal government in power for almost 4 years now.  The Liberal government of Premier Shawn Graham,  especially  former Education Minister Kelly Lamrock, has done much to improve the lives of New Brunswick autistic students and pre schoolers.  But for New Brunswick's autistic youth and adults in need of decent residential care and treatment it is a different story.

5 years ago things were desperate. Little has changed since then for New Brunswick's autistic youth and adults who have been so badly in need, for so long,  of a modern comprehensive residential care and treatment system.

autism

New Brunswick Public Safety Minister John Foran Decrees Taser Use To Continue

I was disappointed to see the comments from Public Safety Minister John Foran as reported on the CBC New Brunswick web site article N.B. won't ban Tasers, but considers new guidelines. In that interview Minister Foran was reported as indicating, without any explanation, that "New Brunswick Public Safety Minister John Foran says he is not prepared to ban the use of Tasers by the province's police. Foran said his department is looking at developing new guidelines for Taser use, but he sees no need for an immediate ban."

On December 24 2006 I sent an email request to Minister Foran, Premier Graham, Health Minister Murphy and Justice Minister and Solicitor General TJ Burke requesting that the New Brunswick government "prohibit the police use of TASERS or at least suspend such use until your government has studied their safety and you personally feel comfortable with their use on New Brunswickers." My concern, beyond that of any citizen's concern, arises from the fact that I am the father of a profoundly autistic boy with limited communication ability and autistic persons and persons with developmental disabilities have been Tasered on occasion in North America because they lack communication skills and police will often use Tasers in situations where the person with whom they are speaking "fail to comply" with their communications, that is with police orders or directions. In the recent Vancouver tragedy the gentleman was unable to communicate because he did not understand English.

My letter from last Christmas Eve stated:

December 24, 2006

Hon. Shawn Graham, Premier
Hon. TJ Burke, Minister of Justice and Attorney General
Hon. John Foran, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General
Hon. Michael Murhphy, Minister of Health

Dear Honourable Premier and Honourable Ministers:

As the father of a 10 year old autistic boy with severe communication challenges I have long been aware that persons with autism and other disorders which impair communication skills have on occasion been TASERED by police forces in North America; in some part because police will use TASERS when dealing with "unruly" persons who do not respond to commands just as they sometimes use forceful takedowns in effecting arrests of such persons. I am concerned about the use of such dangerous weapons on New Brunswick citizens by our police forces.

The announcement by New Brunswick's Chief Coroner Dianne Kelly that she has set a date for an inquest into the death of Kevin Geldart, 34, who had been reported missing from a Moncton hospital ward on May 5, 2005 and who died after Moncton police used a Taser gun on him later that day, increases my concern as does news that the Fredericton City Council has voted to authorize the purchase of TASERS for use by Fredericton City police officers.

TASER use has raised concerns around the world and its use has preceded the deaths of approximately 50 people in North America since 2001. A TASER is a weapon which discharges a high voltage shock sometimes causing cardiac arrest, sometimes immediate and total loss of muscle control resulting in serious head injuries from unprotected collapse of the victim.

Amnesty International has called for cessation of TASER use by police forces pending further study of their safety and has stated that the use by police forces of TASER weapons as contraventions of international standards prohibiting torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment as well as standards set out under the United Nations (UN) Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by law Enforcement Officials.

Please be safe not sorry. You have great and necessary responsibilities to weigh on your consciences. The unnecessary death of New Brunswick citizens should not be among them. I ask that your government prohibit the police use of TASERS or at least suspend such use until your government has studied their safety and you personally feel comfortable with their use on New Brunswickers.

Respectfully,

Harold Doherty

63 Alder Avenue
Fredericton NB

I don't know if the New Brunswick government gave my expression of concern any real consideration. I do not enjoy any particular weight or influence with the government. And the police forces in New Brunswick perform a vitally important service to our society. Their officers deserve everyone's respect and appreciation. When their representatives urge our Public Safety Minister to permit the continued use of Tasers in apprehending citizens it is understandable that their wishes would be given great weight.

Still, given the numbers of deaths arising when individuals have been Tasered it is long past time that governments, including the New Brunswick government, stopped accepting without real, independent study, assertions about the safety of Taser use. A single Taser shot to a healthy police officer who knows the shot is coming is obviously not the same as the often multiple shots, true shocks, which hit people of unknown health in heightened emotional states.

Since last December there have been more Taser induced deaths in Canada and the US. The world has seen that Robert Dziekanski was Tasered, and subdued with rough physical force, when the arresting officers were not in any visible danger, and without any obvious attempt by those officers to communicate. The officers probably did not understand the Polish language being used by Mr. Dziekanski but they could have tried other means to communicate including facial expressions and hand gestures. As the father of an 11 1/2 year old boy with very limited oral communication abilities I have had to learn to communicate in every manner possible.

It is time police officers focussed more on communication, more on defusing situations, and less on firing their Tasers on people. Tasers are not safe when used on persons of unknown health in difficult circumstances. The evidence can be found in the deaths that have ensued. The false belief that Tasers are harmless have probably contributed to their occasionally unnecessary use on persons like Robert Dziekanski.

Hopefully too our political leadership will do more than simply tell us that regardless of the deaths that ensue New Brunswick citizens who lack the ability to communicate will be subject to Taser shots and possible death. Hopefully when Minister Foran says that the government is developing new guidelines for Taser use he actually means it. Hopefully those guidelines will encourage officers to use Tasers only when necessary and only when they, or other citizens are being threatened, and not simply for "non-compliance" with a verbal command. A command which may not be understood by many.

Residential Care, Treatment, Needed for New Brunswick Autistic Youths, Adults

In New Brunswick much progress has been made for pre-school autistic children. Some funding is now available for evidence based autism interventions and agencies have been established, and measures implemented, to provide accountability in delivery of intervention services. Improvements are also starting to be made to provide autism trained teacher assistants and resource teachers to provide autistic school children with a real education. But for youths and adults with autism who are in need of decent, competent residential care and treatment nothing has changed since the fall of 2005. That was when Canada became aware that New Brunswick is so lacking in residential facilites with properly trained personnel and in treatment for autistic youths and adults that we truly literally house some of our autistic residents on the grounds of penal institutions. There has been a provincial election in the period since 2005 and a new governing team is just now getting its full grip on the reins of power. Nonetheless the time is long overdue for New Brunswick to start providing decent residential care and treatment for its autistic youths and adults - right here in New Brunswick.


Autistic boy kept in New Brunswick jail

No other place for him to stay

13-year-old must go to U.S. hospital

The Toronto Star, KELLY TOUGHILL, ATLANTIC CANADA BUREAU, Oct. 19, 2005

HALIFAX—A 13-year-old autistic boy now living in a New Brunswick jail compound will be sent out of Canada because there is no home, hospital or institution that can handle him in his own province.

Provincial officials confirmed yesterday the boy is living in a visitor's apartment at the Miramichi Youth Centre and will be moved to a treatment centre in Maine by November.

They stressed he is not under lock and key, has no contact with other inmates and is living outside the high wire fence that surrounds the youth detention centre.

Nevertheless, the jailhouse placement and the transfer to Maine have outraged mental health advocates and opposition critics.

"They put this boy in a criminal facility because he is autistic," said Harold Doherty, a board member of the Autism Society of New Brunswick.

"Now we are exporting our children because we can't care for them. This is Canada, not a Third World country.

``We are supposed to have a decent standard of care for the sick and the vulnerable, but we don't."

Liberal MLA John Foran echoed his concern. "This boy has done nothing wrong, is not the subject of any court order, but is in a penal institution." ........


http://www.canadiancrc.com/articles/Tor_Star_Autistic_boy_kept_NB_jail_19OCT05.htm